It was a long, tortuous month and a half, but after five disheartening and debilitating tries, Colorado has won a football game during the 2022 season.
In their first game under interim head coach Mike Sanford, the Buffs defeated Cal, 20-13, in overtime Saturday at Folsom Field to avoid the first winless season in program history.
There are any number of angles and storylines to dissect, but let’s delve into the five biggest takeaways to an eventful and euphoric afternoon in Boulder.
1. That was really, really cool
College football is defined by its emotional resonance and unapologetic eccentricities. It’s truly a sport unlike any other in this country, one that can turn something so seemingly mundane into an unforgettable event.
On Saturday, we saw just that. I was born and raised in Kentucky. I went to college in Boston. I spent the past 10 years living and working in Pittsburgh. I have no connection whatsoever to the University of Colorado, but even as a neutral observer simply there to write about the game in a professional capacity, it was difficult, maybe even impossible, not to be enthralled by the scene that unfolded after Cal’s final pass attempt hit the turf. Only in this sport could you see fans of a 1-5 team storm the field in shared catharsis and euphoria, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. From players to coaches to fans, they all deserved it in their own way. After weeks of enduring pain, they finally got to experience glee.
“It’s been a long, long route through all the adversity we’ve had to face,” offensive lineman Casey Roddick said after the game. “We kind of balled it all up and put it into one game.”
Despite all of the Buffs’ struggles this year, 50,000 people still showed up on an idyllic Saturday to cheer on a team that had given them little to no reason for hope this season. When the attractiveness of the open Colorado head coaching position is discussed by those who cover the sport, the passion and loyalty of the fan base is often cited. Today, we saw what exactly they mean by that.
That faith was rewarded. The Buffs turned in their best performance of the season and earned every bit of joy that their accomplishment brought. Even for the emotionally detached who cover this team, watching the enthusiasm get sapped from these players that much more after each loss can be unsettling to see. It’s a level of misery you don’t wish upon anyone. But for at least one afternoon, they got to celebrate.
2. Mike Sanford’s influence was palpable
Long before Jack Plummer’s fourth-and-goal overtime pass fell incomplete, you could tell something was different about this Colorado team. For the better part of the past two weeks, we heard all about how much more energized the Buffs’ practices were and now the vibe around the program was elevated. They’re easy sentiments to espouse in a bye week and the days leading up to a game. Once the ball is kicked off, it becomes a little more difficult to maintain and hold on to that rosy outlook. It wouldn’t have been hard to envision a scenario in which Colorado came out with a feisty start in front of a wired home crowd only for Cal to build an early lead and zap whatever buzz had begun to build, like that brief moment in Space Jam when the Looney Tunes realized that the magic elixir they had been drinking was actually just water.
That didn’t happen, though. Colorado’s defense held firm – more on that later – and allowed it to carry a 3-0 lead into halftime. Even when they trailed, the Buffs were never far behind. You didn’t even have to look at the scoreboard, though, to get a read on the team’s collective mindset. The scene on the bench was unlike anything I had seen this season – coaches rushing out to the boundary lines to celebrate a big play, players standing on the bench and waving towels, the constant jumping. It helps to not be down multiple scores in the first half, sure, but there was a spirit in this team that was evident in its demeanor and, more importantly, its play.
A cynical, and perhaps accurate, interpretation of Saturday was that it was a momentary reprieve from an ignominious season. In all likelihood, Colorado’s going to be an underdog in its final six games and will do well to win one other game this season. It may not even do that. But if the victory against the Golden Bears was any indication of what’s to come, this will be a team that, even in losing efforts, will show much more fight, resilience and competitiveness than it did in its first five games.
3. The defense was significantly better
Few things defined the Buffs’ ineptitude in their 0-5 start than their defensive struggles, punctuated by the 673 yards they gave up to Arizona in what would be Karl Dorrell’s final game as head coach. They were dominated up front. They couldn’t tackle. Whether it was on the ground or through the air, they couldn’t seem to stop anyone, with each of their first five opponents scoring at least 38 points.
On Saturday, that all changed. In Colorado’s first five games, it hadn’t allowed an opponent to average fewer than 5.9 yards per play, rush for fewer than 5.2 yards per carry or gain fewer than 413 total yards. Against Cal, it gave up four yards per play, 1.6 yards per carry and 297 total yards. The Buffs’ defense was different to the point of being unrecognizable. They won battles at the line of scrimmage to put pressure on the quarterback and stuff running backs before they could even begin to try to get through a gap (Josh Chandler-Semedo and Terrance Lang, in particular, were excellent, combining for 5.5 tackles for loss and two sacks). They made open-field tackles. They forced multiple turnovers. They made critical stops at critical times.
“You see one guy want to make a play or go make a play and it makes me want to have to go make a play,” Lang said. “It’s just people feeding off each other’s energy and that led to us playing a lot faster. And it was clear on the field.”
For as much credit as Sanford has gotten for the wholesale changes in just a two-week stretch, the defensive players and interim defensive coordinator Gerald Chatman deserve just as much praise.
4. The Buffs might have a No. 1 receiving target
While it’s partially a reflection of the uncertainty at quarterback through the season’s first three games, Colorado entered the matchup against Cal with just one player – senior Daniel Arias – with more than 115 receiving yards this season and even Arias was only at 237.
The Buffs’ first win was made possible by the contributions of a slew of individuals, but somewhere near the top of that list would have to be Montana Lemonious-Craig. The 6-foot-2 sophomore has been an intriguing player for some time, with the physical frame and sheer look of a difference-maker at the position. On Saturday, that potential became reality. The Inglewood, Calif. native had eight catches for 119 yards. Since his first season with the program in 2020, he had never had more than three catches or 52 receiving yards in a game, making this a breakout performance in every sense of the phrase.
It wasn’t just his numbers. It was how he went about achieving them. He made an outstanding catch on a 37-yard pass from Jordyn Tyson on a trick play in the third quarter that set up a go-ahead Colorado touchdown a few plays later. Then, of course, there was the game-winning touchdown in overtime, when he hauled in what initially looked like an overthrown JT Shrout pass, stretching his body as far out as he could to bring in the throw and get a heel in bounds.
Granted, I’m inclined to like anyone with ‘Craig’ somewhere in their name, but in this instance, that favoritism is justified.
5. Thankfully, Deion Smith is OK
For as much as I’ve waxed poetic about college football’s more charming or enticing aspects, Colorado’s win also embodied the game’s inherent brutality. Running back Deion Smith caught a screen pass early in the fourth quarter, but was hit hard and fell to the turf, where he was motionless before being immediately tended to by trainers and carted off the field on a stretcher.
Sanford opened his press conference by providing an update on Smith, noting that the Houston native is “standing up and walking around”, alleviating some of the worst fears of so many.
“We got a chance to talk to him and everything, but that kind of gave us a lot of fire,” running back Anthony Hankerson said. “That’s our teammate, our brother, that went down. Nobody wants to see that and we had to respond. There’s no other choice.”
Here’s to a speedy recovery.
